Quite an experience

I am three days into my transition experience. The third afternoon I woke up, feeling as though it were morning. The night shift was a breeze. I have also had some really great experiences. I got to attend a cesarean birth, and assist as the mom was in recovery. I am really enjoying the nurses on the floor and totally dig the night shift "vibe." Because it's just the nurses and a tech on the floor, everyone really gets to know each other and helps each other. Yesterday I forced myself to get up before 1 pm so I could go back to sleep last night. It worked well, as I slept from 9:15 to 6:45 this morning, but I spent most of yesterday in a haze. I'm guessing that is going to be a pretty common experience if I get a job on night shift.

I have only two days left (Thursday and Friday night). This makes me sad. At this point, I don't know if I have hope of getting a job on this floor once I pass the NCLEX. I think I have made a good impression, so if there is a job available, I have a good chance of getting the position. However, there may not be any open spots. Be thinking "open position" thoughts for me over the next couple months. Last year they didn't make offers until August. You probably know that patience is not my strong suit.

Either way, I couldn't be more pleased with my transition experience and am looking forward getting out and practicing what I've learned.

Transition: The beginning

Last night, I started the transition for nursing school. My transition is 60 hours I spend shadowing a nurse. In my case, I'm on a maternity floor, on night shift. I have to say, it was awesome.

My nerves got the better of me a few times, but overall, I feel like I have found my calling. I was surprised that it took until about 5:30 am before I really started to feel the night shift of it all. I had some wonderful experiences (including my first two blood draws!), and can't wait for tonight. I really like the vibe of the the night shift. The nurses are all very friendly, and I came away from the shift feeling like I just had a sleepover where we happened to be working. It's kind of surreal to wish people a good morning when you've been up for 26 hours and want nothing more than to be horizontal. Just saying.

I was in bed by 8:15 am and slept like a dead thing until 2:13 pm, when my eyes popped open. "Ding!" Apparently I was done sleeping, because I tried to go back to sleep for another 25 minutes, but it was not happening. So now I'll take a shower, get my boys, make dinner and start all over again. Sleep. Eat. Work. Repeat.

I'm going to be a nurse, ya'll!

A happy song for a happy day

I'm kind of in love with this song and this singer. Zee Avi is a young woman who wrote a song, posted it on youtube, got discovered and now she has an album. How great is that? Today I also passed my exit exam with flying colors. I start my transition tomorrow evening, have 16 days until my final and 28 until I graduate. Life. Is. Good.

Spoiled much?

I have two supremely spoiled kids. I never intended that to happen ... it just kind of did. Exhibit one: eggs.

When Gummy Bear was very small, he absolutely refused to eat eggs prepared in any manner (unless they were baked into cookies). As he got older, we kept trying to get him to eat them. Scrambled? Nope. Over easy? Non. Boiled? Kein. Finally, we discovered that he would eat egg white, but only if the yolk had never touched it. And voila, the separated egg was born. Now, he'll eat both parts, but NOT TOGETHER! Sadly, now Cheeky Monkey thinks he needs to eat his eggs this way too. It didn't occur to me how ridiculous this was until my mom tried to make Bear a separated egg the other morning and had to text back and forth 3 times to get it "right." Sheesh.

Other examples of child spoilage? I still rock the Monkey before bed at night. The boys split a soft pretzel at Target and two Munchkins at the grocery store. I let Bear wear mismatched socks to school as long as both are clean. I cut the tops off Monkey's strawberries and slice Bears into quarters ... because that's the way they like them. Sesame Place.

How were you spoiled?

Snippets

1. The boys have created what I believe will be a new Olympic sport. It's called chair luge and the boys play it when we're making dinner. It's all good fun until someone trips over a chair.

 2.Today Gummy Bear and I went on the March for Babies. He was a trooper and good company today. It was a 3.2 mile walk, and he didn't start getting tired until the end of mile 2. Then he hitched a ride in a friend's stroller and piggy-backed the rest of the way. By far his favorite part of the morning was the powdered-sugar donut and the grape juice. It was really nice to spend a morning just with the Bear. He's really turning into a fun little dude.

You all rock for your donations. Thanks again!

3. We went to a little Chinese Buffet for lunch. Cheeky Monkey polished off most of an orange, which he calls "orangeges." The little man can eat. We are basically at the point where I am taking clothes from Gummy Bear's closet and putting them directly into the Monkey's. They're a little big, but not much. I wonder how long it will take before they wear the same size at the same time.

4. Of course, at the moment, the Monkey mostly wants to wear everyone else's shoes. It's darn cute.

Size 7

5. Gummy Bear is having a Pre-K graduation the second week of June. This week, they took pictures. How stinking cute is the Bear? He's like a tiny little Jehovah's Witness. The room was a Jehovah's Witness convention.

Excuse me, may I have a moment of your time?

6. I finished up my application for my nursing license this week. I'm mailing it on Monday. The fact that I'm one month from graduation is pretty surreal. Lately, I feel like I'm having an out-of-body experience. I feel like I've been working on this degree for half my life, although I realize it's only been 3 years or so. I start my (night shift!) transition on Thursday. My final is May 11, and I'll be a graduate nurse on May 23. Holy crap! In less than two months, I'll be an RN. I'll. Be. An. RN!!!

And then I'll just have to find a job. And the nursing job market is looking increasingly grim. Le sigh.

The topping on my crap sundae

Disclaimer: I'm going to whine a bit.

This is the week of my semester where I have the absolute most to do of the entire year. I am trying to study for an exam Friday with a scary lot of information on it, have two days of clinical, one day of research, a care plan and 3 case studies to complete and a nursing license application to get notarized and sent.

As if that wasn't enough, the boys school is having a month where each day is a different child's special day. It's Gummy Bear's day Thursday. This means a poster, a special snack to share with the class and gathering a host of his favorites to bring and share (favorite toys, music, etc). Also, they are taking Pre-K graduation pictures tomorrow and I went all over hither and yon looking for a white, short-sleeved button down shirt in a boys size 5. Found one. At Old Navy. Yesterday. So that had to be washed and iron. And he had an accident at school today which necessitated a wash and dry of his nap roll.

Still, this is the stuff my life is made of. Cheeky Monkey has rash on his foot, that has been playing peek-a-boo with me for 3 weeks. I made an appointment with the dermatologist's nurse practitioner for this evening at 5:30. After I got home from clinical today, I worked through a case study, ran to the store for the poster board, and picked up the boys. We ran home so I could exchange the white shirt load for the pee pee nap role load and then we went to the doctor's office.

Where the receptionist snottily informed me that my appointment was on Thursday at 5:45. No sorry about the mix up. No, whoops. No, let me see if anyone can see you since you're already here. Just "your appointment is on Thursday at 5:45." Ok, well I would never have scheduled an appointment on Thursday this week since I have a HUGE FREAKING EXAM ON FRIDAY. But hey, whatever, let's reschedule. "Thursday at 1:30?" No, I can't do Thursday. "Thursday at 2:45?" Still, can't do Thursday. "Well, then it will have to be next week. Why don't you just call us?" At this point, I could either dissolve into frustrated tears, yell at the snippy receptionist or walk away. Meanwhile, Monkey is crying because he has a boo-boo and wants to "go doctor!!"

I chose to walk away. Bear asks me if I'm mad or "just upset" with the lady at the doctor's office. We took the kids to Chik-Fil-A where my saint of a husband played in the play room with them while I came home and got some stuff done (after he validated my sanity by saying that he overheard me make the appointment for today at 5:30). And then? I got a reminder call about my doctor's appointment for Cheeky Monkey for Thursday at 6 PM! And that my friends, was the topping on my crap sundae today. It's 9:15. I'm going to bed. Night ya'll.

Easter

I'm a little late posting about our Easter festivities, but life has been a little busy this week, so you'll have to excuse me. We started the morning with the boys opening checking out their Easter baskets. Woohoo, the Easter bunny came!

This is essentially the same picture, but I love the look on Gummy Bear's face.

Wait, that bunny brought you more stuff than he brought me!

Then we had breakfast. Since we weren't actually going to hide our dyed eggs, we had them for breakfast. Cheeky Monkey was an enthusiastic partaker.

Bear ... not so much.

Again, the monkey. He peeled and ate most of 2 hard boiled eggs.

This was the aftermath of the Easter baskets. That paper "grass"? It's a terrible idea. Don't do it.

I found some more today. In the laundry.

We went to Easter service and then headed off to our big Italian family for Easter dinner and egg hunt. I realized I didn't get great pictures of the egg hunt, but the boys had fun. There were something like 96 eggs for 5 kids.

In other news, I got my transition assignment this week. I'll be working nights with a Labor and Delivery nurse! I'm really excited and can hardly believe I'm almost done. I have one month until my final exam. The whole thing feels pretty surreal right now. I am completely finished with lecture and have one more week of clinical before my transition rotation starts. It feels like I've been working on this forever, and here I am, about to be an RN. Whee!

Marching again

Hi everyone. I am marching for the March of Dimes again this year. This is an organization I believe does really important work. They are on the forefront of research about prematurity, vaccines and newborn screening. Since I'm hoping to be a maternity nurse sometime soon, this organization is near and dear to me. Check out this graph to see how your state is doing on premature births. Here in New Jersey, 12% of babies are still born prematurely and 18.5% of pregnant women are uninsured. How is your state doing?

As you can see, I have nearly met my goal of $350 (you guys rock!). Last year, however, I raised $450 and would love to match or exceed that this year. If you're looking for a place to park your donation this year, please consider the March of Dimes.

Thanks!

Fun with chicken ova

Yesterday, we participated in the annual Festival of Chicken Ova Dyeing. I bought the kids those pink tongs because I thought it would lessen the degree of crackage. I was wrong. But we had fun anyway. Cheeky Monkey wanted to do everything himself (because of course, he's two).

Look, a picture with both boys looking at the camera and smiling. Holy cow!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Gummy Bear was really into the ova-coloring this year. He dyed some with multiple colors and had Neena write his name on a few.

Every time Cheeky Monkey picked up an egg, we heard a disconcerting crunch. Then there was more crunching when he took the egg out of the dye. Strangely, out of the 6 eggs he got to color, the only two to remain without cracks were the yellow ones, his favorite color. Coincidence? Unlikely.

Birthdays and things

Guess who had a birthday yesterday?

Gummy Bear picked the big balloon, "because it has work on it. And it's square."

 He's finally my age again (for the next 7 months). He asked for birthday pie instead of birthday cake. It's lucky that my mom jumped on that, because I don't do pie. This one is coconut cream. She also make a chocolate cream. My mom rocks.

We had dinner together, where apparently, Bear was freezing to death, because he put on his winter jacket halfway though.

Monkey anxiously awaited the pie.

Seriously, how much does he look like a little boy these days?

Yep, Ry turned 32 yesterday. And he just keeps getting better. I couldn't have gotten a better partner for this crazy life. Happy birthday, my love. You are the tops!

In other news, Bear has been a very helpful big brother lately. He's been helping Monkey use the toilet, helping "repair" his car, helping him stay out of trouble, and generally being a sweet kid. I don't know what happened, but I like it.

The power company has been tearing up our street this week to upgrade the pipes. They've had all kinds of cool diggers and trucks outside. The boys are fascinated.

And cute.

My family is the best kind of awesome

I'm graduating in May. Since this my third college degree, and associates at that, I was just really excited that some of my family was going to make it to the ceremony. I certainly didn't expect gifts. I definitely didn't expect gifts of sheer awesomeness. And yet, my sneaky husband got my whole family together and got me this, very, very cool ukulele. It's a Kala solid Acacia Tenor Ukulele. Ry had to spring the surprise early so he could make sure to get the size I wanted and get it ordered. It came this week. 

The guy who sold it to us called me when it arrived and told me that he "tuned it up for me." Also, it made "everything else we have sound like cardboard." Seriously, this is a beautiful ukulele and has the best kind of mellow sound. I certainly don't have the talent to need an instrument of this quality, but I sure do appreciate it.

So, this is a little thank you from me to you: Ry, Mom, Greg, Dad, Laurel, Becky, Brad, Jo, Mike, Frank, Pat, Cathy and Eric. I am humbled by your thoughtfulness and love you so very, very much. I will, in fact, think of you every time I play it.

A visit from Tantie and other assorted news

Let's begin this post by asking, how good-looking is my husband? Right?

The last day Tantie was in town, she made her Mummu's famous Swedish Coffee Bread. It was a seriously involved process that included 2 risings and about 4 hours.

 It was delicious (and gorgeous). We already miss Tantie so very much. Come back soon Tantie!